Iowa Farmboy meets Southern Belle, girl finishes college and moves from Georgia to Iowa to be closer to boy, boy marries girl, boy's job takes them both to Belo Horizonte, Brasil. One year later they have a baby (Gabriela Marina), another year passes and they move back to Iowa. A few months later they have a 2nd baby (Lilian Scarlett). The 3rd girl (Makayla Jasmine) joins the family a couple years after that. Boy continues job with a construction equipment maufacturing company in Burlington, Iowa; girl attempts to balance being a stay at home mom while working as a birth doula and childbirth educator.

We laugh a lot, travel as often as we can, and try to enjoy every moment of the craziness that is our lives. Thanks for joining us on the journey!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, I was trying to catch up on our entertaining and traveling. I last posted about being in Salvador with Eric's family . . .

After our week in Bahia, we all flew to Belo Horizonte. And boy, was it nice to be home again. We do love to travel, but coming back to your own bed after being away several weeks is the best! Even if you do bring the in-laws with you. ;)

We arrived home on Monday, August 10 and Eric was scheduled to be back at work the following day. He wasn't feeling too spectacular on that Sunday night or Monday though and by the next morning it was obvious he was sick: fever, sore throat, body aches . . .

Being that we had just been on quite a few flights and had been warned about H1N1 (Swine Flu) during each of them, I did a quick search for the symptoms. Of course H1N1 has all the same symptoms as everything. So either Eric was fighting a common cold or he had Swine Flu. We both agreed that he probably should go to the doctor instead of to work that morning. I was just thinking about how supremely unpopular he would be if it were indeed Swine Flu and he took it into to everyone in the office!!!

So we left the family to fend for themselves (and babysit Gabs) that morning and we headed to the hospital - where we found 30 or so other people with a fever and some combination of cold/flu-like symptoms who were all concerned they were afflicted with H1N1. Once we finally got in to see the doctor, he asked about Eric's symptoms and said something along the lines of "Yeah, well you definitely have some kind of viral cold or flu. You should stay home the next 3 days to avoid infecting anyone else." And then he sent us along on our merry way with instructions to drink plenty of fluids, get some rest, take Tylenol as needed for fever and pain and, for goodness sakes, stay away from the rest of the human population.

So Eric cuddled up in bed with his laptop and cell phone and tried to rest in between catching up on 2 weeks worth of emails from his time on vacation.

Meanwhile, Gabriela and I began our 4-Day Tour Extraordinaire de Minas Gerais with Eric's parents and sister.

Stopping back by the house to bring the sickly-one lunch

Over the course of the next four days, we

-Visited Ouro Preto

-Got a bird's eye view of Belo Horizonte

-Ate a gigantic Brasilian hot dog from a street vendor-Went to Mercado Central

-Enjoyed a lovely meal of Frango ao Molho Pardo (and only after the fact informed our guests that the delicious "gravy" smothering the chicken was made out of chicken blood. But I think they thought we were kidding. Okay, believe whatever you'd like . . .)-And made plenty of other site-seeing stops in between.

Then late on Friday afternoon (when Eric was feeling much more chipper), Gabriela and I dropped off the car and our guests with Eric at work and they took off on the 5-hour journey to Rio de Janeiro. (The car only has five seatbelts, so Gabs and I ended up taking a taxi back home and then catching a late night flight and meeting them down there.)